State Senate Hearing in Pittsburgh to Focus on Climate Change

At the request of state Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D-Forest Hills) and Sen. Wayne Fontana (D-Brookline), the Senate Democratic Policy Committee will hold a hearing next Tuesday in Pittsburgh on strategies for combatting climate change by reducing methane gas emissions.

The hearing is set for Tuesday, April 23 at 10 a.m. in the Teamster Temple, 4701 Butler Street, Pittsburgh.

When President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord in 2017, Costa and Fontana (D-Allegheny) criticized the decision and called for state government to lead efforts to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the accord’s emissions reduction goals. Tuesday’s hearing follows a November 2018 Senate panel discussion in Pittsburgh that focused on ways to control carbon emissions and stoke economic and energy infrastructure investment.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that methane warms the planet by 86 times as much as carbon (CO2).

The policy committee is chaired by Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh/Northampton).